Highlights of Special Collections

Soaring Flight. . . Edward Chalmers Huffaker

E. C. Huffaker was an engineer and aeronautical experimenter. He built gliders or early flying machines based on his observations of bird flight. Huffaker worked at one time under Samuel P. Langley at the Smithsonian as part of their aeronautical staff, and later for famed aviation pioneer Octave Chanute.

   

Crerar Manuscript 294 contains a manuscript and drawings
of Huffakers Soaring Flight. The drawings of a glider are
depicted from several angles, and contain considerable
description of the glider and its parts. The manuscript
appears to be handwritten observations of the machine
in flight, along with some general principles of flight.